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Russell T Davies
Stephen Russell Davies, OBE (born 27 April 1963), better known by his pen name Russell T Davies, is a Welsh television producer and screenwriter whose works include Queer as Folk, Bob & Rose, The Second Coming, Casanova and the 2005 revival of the classic British science fiction series Doctor Who. Cucumber and Banana Davies' next project after Doctor Who, codenamed More Gay Men, was a spiritual successor to Queer as Folk and would have focused on middle-aged gay men in the Manchester gay scene. The show's genesis dates back from 2001, when his friend Carl Austin asked him "why are gay men so glad when we split up?". The show was due to enter into production in 2006, but was indefinitely postponed due to the success of Doctor Who. Davies continued to develop ideas for the show, and explained a pivotal scene in the premiere to Cook in 2007: In 2011, the series had entered into pre-production, with American cable network Showtime contracted for transmission and BBC Worldwide for distribution. Showtime had reached the point of casting before Davies moved back to the Manchester, at which point the series was picked up by Channel 4 to be produced with Nicola Shindler and the Red Production Company. The commission by Channel 4 marked Davies' first collaboration with the channel since Queer as Folk and Shindler and Red since Casanova. Davies was convinced to return to the channel by Head of Drama and former Doctor Who executive producer Piers Wenger, who described the show as a "political piece of writing" that creates a "radical approach to sexuality". Cucumber focuses on the life of the middle-aged Henry Best (Vincent Franklin) and the fallout from a disastrous date with his boyfriend of nine years, and is accompanied with Banana, an E4 anthology series featuring younger characters across the LGBT spectrum on the periphery of the Cucumber narrative, and Tofu, an online documentary series available on 4oD discussing modern sex, sexuality and issues arisen during the show with the cast and public. The three names reference a urological scale categorising the male erection by hardness from tofu to cucumber, and are used to symbolise differences in sexual attitudes and behaviour between the two generations. Although Cucumber is designed as a self-contained serial focusing on the life of one man, Davies envisions Banana as open-ended and believes it could continue after its sister series finishes. Davies' next project after Cucumber and Banana will be The Boys, a Channel 4 series about the HIV/AIDS crisis during the 1980s. The Boys will be a dramatised retrospective of the crisis which focuses on the men "living in the bedsits" during the 1980s as opposed to films such as Pride which focus on gay activists; Davies notes that the stories regarding the politics of the crisis and the virus itself has been told, but not those regarding the early victims of the virus itself. Davies describes The Boys as a way of "coming to terms" with his own actions during the 1980s, when the shock of the crisis prevented him from properly mourning the deaths of his close friends. After The Boys, Davies plans to write a series about sextortion that draws inspiration from real-life incidents of blackmail that resulted in suicide. Category:Cast & Crew